Ruiz v Joshua well well well

[Dark Lord Al]

A nice little earner at 33/1

[SlimTrae]

A nice little earner at 33/1

May this be a lesson for these upcoming boxers constantly haggling over who to fight and when.

To Ruiz: Get your Grub on!

[Fenster]

A nice little earner at 33/1

May this be a lesson for these upcoming boxers constantly haggling over who to fight and when.

Exactly!

It's fantastic to see these greedy bastards 100 million fantasy paydays go up in smoke.

Long live Buster Ruiz!!!

[imp]

Ruiz handspeed and counter shots were too much for AJ.

Hit him with some good body shots as well!

[anthonyktfo]

Not many people took Andy serious due to his fat body

He proved so many people wrong

[Primo Carnera]

A nice little earner at 33/1

Nice one Al! You had a hunch and followed it. Fair play.

[SlimTrae]

Not many people took Andy serious due to his fat body

He proved so many people wrong

I'm guilty of such. When I watched Toney vs Rahman II, no matter what happened, I kept asking myself, how could such a blubbery boxer even expect to be taken seriously.

I didn't predict the fight, because I kinda felt I was letting Ruiz' lack of an athletic body deter me,, so I went for him out of spite for 3 BIG azz dudes (Fury, DW & AJ) fighting on twitter, but not in the ring.

[GAME]

Joshua looked off from the 1st round. Seemed lethargic leaning against the ropes before the fight and gassing during the fight very early on. Something's wrong with his training for him to be running on empty. Hearn has to take some responsibility aswel as McCracken because when joe Louis fought the bum of the month it kept him sharp and kept ring rust away.joshua hadn't fought since last sept and it showed with his timing being terrible didn't look fighting fit.

parker will be kicking himself for not letting his hands go more vs Joshua . he had the handspeed, stamina and chin to win the exchanges with Joshua but had to watch a man he'd already beaten take all the glory

well done to Ruiz. He deserved it

[ykdadamaja]

I was rooting for Ruiz, but didn't think he would win by 7 round ko. I thought it would be a Joshua UD or SD.

[Ron Swanson]

Nice bet. I called it a bad bet before the fight and was dead wrong. Props to you.

The strange part for me is I don’t walk away thinking any more of Ruiz than I thought going in. I only think less of Joshua. Not my usual MO as I’m more about respect for the winner. But Joshua just looked bad with Ruiz using 1 tactic and Joshua unable to adjust, Joshua asking out of the fight if not with words, and his seeming relief when it was over.

Joshua needs to spend less time lifting and more time on tactics. Hands up, don’t paw with the jab, using his jab to force Ruiz to lead rather than allowing Ruiz pressure to force Joshua to lead so Ruiz could counter with his faster hands. Ruiz is very predictable, left right left right. Joshua should be able to take the rematch but big ups to Ruiz and those that placed flutters.(is that the right vernacular?)

[mikeeod]

Biggest loser in all of this is Big Baby Miller. How much do you think it stings him to see where Ruiz is right now?!? As bad of a night as that was for A.J., and Hearn, I feel that it was MUCH worse for Miller, realizing what an opportunity he pissed away.

[p4pking]

Thats a good point. I kind of thought the same, then considered it wasnt fair to ruiz, but having now rewatched it, i really feel AJ was there for the taking, and a number of guys wouldve beat him tonight. Hard to say as the knockdown couldve changed everything, but it looked like he wasnt up for a fight that went much longer than that. A 600 pound guy with ability and juiced to the gills would have been a bad look.

[El Kabong]

Way to wait for your money Wilder bravo

[El Kabong]

AJ fought a piss poor fight how he allowed lil Stay Puft to get inside on him was just woeful.

[X]

We'll, I never saw that coming.

However, with the benefit of hindsight - IVAN DRAGO GOT TURNED INTO FRANK BRUNO.

Admittedly, with Ruiz being a late replacement, Joshua had trained for a different opponent. Miller must be truly gutted.

Thai wasn't Lewis/Rahman (which was effectively all about one huge punch against an undermotivated champion), or Tyson/Douglas (which was a man on a mission against somebody whose personal life, professional life and psyche were all publicly disintegrating)

If anything it was Louis/Schmeling I (a hugely touted invincible monster being systematically broken down and defeated against a mortal underdog) .... but even that that was a relatively untested youngster against a respected former heavyweight champion. Not a fat, relatively unknown late replacement who wasn't even ranked in the top ten.

Ruiz was impressive. Nice balance, very fast hands, good chin, countered well but without devastating power to be honest.

What won him the fight, IMO, was his footwork. He constantly inched forward, slowly about 6 inches a time. That gave him the centre of the ring for the whole fight and - crucially - allowed him to dictate pace and distance. In every single other fight he had, even Wladimir, it was AJ dictating at what distance the fight was going to be fought.

Joshua, nor his corner, had a clue what to do about that, and he spent the whole fight on the back foot, jabbing. That is not what he has been constructed to do, and the machine started to stutter. Ruiz took away Joshua's advantages in height, reach and power.

He was ponderous, his left hand was held stupidly low and he ate left hooks. He was a fairly chinny and clumsy amateur don't forget. He had no answer to Ruiz coming forward, hand speed and classy countering inside.

Under pressure, you tend to revert to your nature, and once the artificial edifice crumbled, Joshua looked like a stiff, immobile robot type who just retreated in straight lines without the smarts needed to fumble around and survive (something Fury does very well)

He was completed gassed after the third round. I'm not sure he really 'quit' but he knew he had absolutely nothing left and was desperately trying to buy time. If the ref hadn't called it off, AJ would have had about 25 seconds to recover instead of 8. The game was up and Joshua was completely finished by then.

As usual, people overhype sportsmen ..... even on here people have been speculating how AJ would have been too big and too good for Mike Tyson. On this evidence, AJ is made to measure for Iron Mike and he would be torn apart brutally.

AJ will be back, but that aura has been irreversibly damaged. Joe Louis came back to totally rebuild that aura but he is a historical one off. Lewis came back because he knew it was a 'lucky' punch. Tyson came back, but he wasn't really feared as much.

Joshua should have taken the Wilder fight instead of allowing his team to lowball offers.